Otter's Rock

When I was a teenager, in the 90s, my favorite publisher was Baen's Books. They published the Vorkosigan series, and the Honor Harrington series. When I was in the mood for Space Opera, I knew exactly where to find it: look for the books with the Baen logo on the spine. Baen's Bar, the message board they run, was one of my first online homes--not only could you talk to other fans of the books there, you could TALK TO THE AUTHORS DIRECTLY! And sometimes they'd answer! It was amazing. I had a lot of fun hanging out there, and met a lot of really great people.

Both the publisher as a whole and the average Barfly always did lean to the right, in general, because the majority of their stories were (and still are) the sort of traditional, old-school SF/F that skews heavily White Straight Neurotypical Able-bodied Male. I mean, they were still a mainstream publisher, and they also published stuff by left-wing authors (including, notably, Eric Flint, who is a card-carrying Socialist), and you got the full gamut of US (and occasionally international) political opinions. But over the years--especially since Jim Baen died and his right-hand woman Toni Weisskopf took over, they have gone further and further to the right. For example, many of the Sad and Rabid Puppies were/are published by Baen. This is not surprising to me; Toni was Jim's right-hand-woman in more ways than one, let's just say.

The thing about Baen's Bar is that different forums on the bar are radically different. Author forums are modded (or at least used to be) largely to the author's taste. The general forums, however, have always had a very light touch mod-wise. If someone is being an asshole and someone else objects, well, that's their problem. You can guess from this what the "Politics" forum on the Bar was like, given the clientele and little/no modding.

So I was saddened but not surprised to hear that people on the Politics forum of the Bar have been directly advocating for political violence, especially around the attempted coup of January 6th.

I am also not surprised to hear that while Weisskopf has taken the whole Bar down temporarily, she has doubled down on "any objection to advocating violence is censorship," and while lots of people have jumped into the fray to defend the Bar and tear down the whistleblower, none of them have addressed the meat of the issue. Which is of course that multiple people on the Bar were advocating murder and insurrection. Free speech means that everyone is entitled to their political opinion. It doesn't mean that anyone can advocate for the death of other people. And, in any case, Baen is a private company.

Kevin Anderson Christopher Anvil David Brin
Eric Flint Alan Dean Foster David Drake
Dave Freer Brian Herbert LE Modesitt
C.L. Moore John Ringo Clifford Simak
Schmidt Mark Twain Van Vogt
Voltaire David Weber H.G. Wells


Where can you find all these great authors (and many, many more) in one place? Jim Baen's Universe, that's where!

As you may or may not know, Baen's Books is one of the best SF&F publishing houses out there. It's a medium-sized company that has a disproportionate number of the best authors around today, particularly if you limit the field to the 'harder' side of the SF genre. One of the things that got them where they are today is the ability and the willingness to take risks, and a firm belief in the merits of the Web.

A few months ago, they started a SF e-zine, with stories by some of the best names in science fiction. With none of the paper publishing costs, they can pay their writers more (i.e. enough to make it attractive even to Big Name Authors) and still have more stories per issue than a regular paper SF magazine. The goal for each issue is 120,000 words, about half again as much as you would find in a regular paper SF&F magazine. Here's how that is broken down:

Five science fiction stories
Four fantasy stories
Two serials
Three introducing slots (i.e. completely new authors getting their first break)
One classic story
One fact article
Three columns, two by Eric Flint and one "open" slot.
Each story has at least one new piece of artwork; some have as many as three.

There are six issues per year, and the cost is only $30 total. That's five bucks an issue, which is a pretty good price for that much stuff. (BTW, the first few issues are considerably larger than the amount shown here.) The first three issues are already available, with the fourth scheduled to go up in December. People with special needs (i.e. blind, severely handicapped, military on active duty, students, people in developing countries) will get a steep discount once they get the software tweaked to handle that; they're hoping that'll be done by the end of the year.

Folks, this magazine is running right now on a trial basis; if they're going to continue it, they need more subscriptions. I would be extremely disappointed to see this magazine fail because it's got some absolutely great stuff in it. So go out and pick yourself up a subscription, or buy one for a friend/loved one for Christmas! Or both! (Yes, this is a shameless advertisement. It's for a good cause.)

In addition to the fact that there's great stories and articles available for a very good price, short stories have always been extremely important to the SF&F genre. They provide a place for new authors to start out, hone their craft, and build an audience as professional writers before switching to the cut-throat world of novels, and they provide a place for Big Name Authors to experiment with new stuff without risking a full novel on it. But as everyone knows, the traditional genre magazines have been struggling for the past few decades. This is an effort to counteract that. If you love SF&F, if you love the written word, please help support this magazine! And spread the word!

Who is Jim Baen, you may ask? Jim Baen is the owner and publisher at Baen's Books, one of the best science fiction publishers anywhere. His stable of authors includes such greats as David Webber, David Drake, Eric Flint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Timothy Zahn, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, John Ringo, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, and in past years Mercedes Lackey. He has also steadily been reprinting older, out of print classics of science fiction by such authors as Heinlein, Laumer, and Schmitz.

He is an innovator in the field of electronic fiction: he maintains an electronic Free Library of Baen titles, and sells more current titles inexpensively and free of encryption through Webscriptions. He recently launched Baen's Universe, an electronic sf magazine featuring fiction from both the top names in the business; there is also one spot per issue reserved for a previously unpublished author.

Here's all the news we have on his condition:

"Dear Barflies

I'm sorry to have to announce that Jim Baen suffered a stroke on Monday, and
has been in the hospital ever since. His condition is serious, but it's too
early for any prognosis as to how he'll fare from here on in.

His family has arrived in NC, and are with him in the hospital. I've been to
see him, as have other members of Baen's staff and his friend David Drake.
In the meantime, so far as Baen Books is concerned, our plans continue on
schedule.

The business is fine, we're all simply very
concerned about Jim.

Toni Weisskopf
Chief editor, Baen Books"

They have requested no flowers or cards, just prayer.

BTW, I'd highly reccommend checking out Baen's Universe.

Here's an essay by editor/writer Eric Flint on why Baen Books has started a mag when others are on downward spirals. If you want a look at the practicalities and economics of sf fiction writing, check it out.